Weekend Picks for April 4th

Katie Sluiter

Welcome to our first Weekend Picks for April, brought to us by Dr. Katie Sluiter! This week she features a historical fiction set in 1989 Romania - a novel popular with her 8th grade students, and for good reason. Thank you, Katie, for your inspiring post this week! 
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Katie Sluiter has been teaching ELA for over 20 years in West Michigan where she lives with her family and her English bulldog. She has her PhD in English Education and currently teaches 8th grade ELA near Grand Rapids, MI.

I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepety

I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys

As an 8th grade ELA teacher, I read a lot of middle grade and young adult novels. My students get time to silently read independently chosen books, and I use that time to read as well. Because we talk about and share what we are reading, I often find myself choosing books students have talked about loving. 

I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys is one of those books.

I’ve read a few of Sepetys’s books--mostly those taking place during World War II-- and have enjoyed each one. During one of our first book talks for the school year, one of my honors ELA students shared that he was reading I Must Betray You and was really enjoying it since everything about it was brand new history to him.

The setting is 1989 Romania--just before the Romanian Revolution that will overthrow their long-time dictator, Nicolae Ceausescu. Because I was only eleven at the time of the revolution, I only vaguely recall talk of the Berlin wall coming down and the fall of the iron curtain throughout Eastern Europe. It was only when I began my studies as a Holocaust educator that I learned how communism quickly spread across Eastern Europe after World War II. Those countries’ roles in the Holocaust became a side interest as I finished my dissertation about teaching the Holocaust in ELA.

The main character of I Must Betray You is Cristian Florescu, a seventeen-year-old who dreams of becoming a writer, but knows that in the communist regime he lives in, he isn’t free to dream. He just has to follow the rules. His grandfather and parents can remember what life was like before the monarchy was overthrown and the communist regime took over, but only his grandfather will freely speak of it--much to his parents’ apprehension. Because someone is always listening in on conversations in 1980’s Romania. And someone is always willing to snitch.

Fear and Mistrust are Ceausescu’s right hand men ruling over the Romanian citizens. Anyone could be a spy for the government. It is no surprise then that Cristian ends up being blackmailed by the secret police to become an informer. He has a choice to betray his family and friends or attempt to sabotage one of the worst dictators in Eastern Europe. His choice is to try to risk everything to expose to the world what is really happening in Romania in hopes of a revolution.

My student wrote this as part of his response to the book:

​“Personally I really enjoyed the book. With every page [it] kept me in suspense and kept me guessing what will happen next. I like how after the first couple pages the stakes are already high.I also liked that the story took place in 1989 Romania instead of present Romania. Another thing I liked was the ending of the book.”

Ruta Sepetys

I agree with everything he wrote. It’s not a very long book, but it is packed with suspense and twists right from the very beginning. I also enjoyed learning the history alongside the story and the ending really was amazing--but of course we are not going to reveal that to you!

Ruta Sepetys, as usual, brings history to life in an emotional and exciting way that is accessible to young readers who might otherwise not know anything about Romania. ​​​